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Microsoft Unveils 'Pink' Phones As Kin One and Two
adeelarshad82 writes "Microsoft has recently launched two new phones known as the Kin One and Kin Two, previously codenamed 'Pink.' The phones are designed to appeal to social-networking-focused teens, which is probably why the marketing team has tried to spice up the packaging of the phones. According to a Microsoft official the phones are named Kin because they 'knit together ... kindred spirits.' The phones have a keyboard. The Kin One has a 5-megapixel camera, while the Kin Two's 8-megapixel camera can shoot 720p HD video. Both cameras include an LED flash. The One has a mono speaker, the Two's is stereo. One includes 4GB of on-board memory and the Two has 8GB. Both Kin phones have touch screens. According to the hands-on, the Kin phones are based on the same Windows CE core as Windows Phone 7, and they have an IE-based browser. These phones have no downloadable apps, no games, not even a calendar. They're not meant to be expandable smart phones; instead, very good messaging phones."
"No apps. Less functionality than an iPhone. Lame."
See, Taco, this is how you make correct prophecies...
.
Trolling is a art,
...and yet, apparently, without any way to do IM (at least Wikipedia page and links there about them says so)
Seriously, WTF? I could understand their lack of expandability, software-wise (especially if the price is right), if the "social" package they provide is right (though by no means unique - see INQ phones). But no IM? How did that get through?
One that hath name thou can not otter
"These phones have no downloadable apps, no games, not even a calendar. They're not meant to be expandable smart phones; instead very good messaging phones."
Nice job, Microsoft. Way to ignore the growing trends in favor of your own way. After all, you certainly know better than those lousy consumers.
In all fairness, though, they'll probably sell like hotcakes in the niche market they're designed for. I just don't see it as a very big market.
Do you have any idea how long it takes to dig graves for twenty-three oak trees?
Gotta love the teens driving vid on the kin.com site.
I just can't wait!
So with peer pressure today, what kid in their right mind is going to want this phone? It isn't an iPhone or a BlackBerry... This will be a failure, just like the Zune.
I just can't take these products seriously. Instead of this niche marketing, microsoft needs to focus on something with broad appeal. There's a reason iPhone beat them in that space, and this is exactly it.
Free Conference Call -- No Spam, High Quality
It has all the costs to make of any other smartphone, because OS wise it is a smartphone. So it can't be cheaper than any other smartphone.
If anything, its more expensive because there is no app-related revenue.
So how does Microsoft expect to compete? Just lose more money at something?
Test your net with Netalyzr
Whatever they do now seems to be a pale caricature of reality... why is this the case?
Were they always this clueless?
It's sad... so much talent.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
But then it became more apparent that it's competing against the EnV and the Rage. What Verizon calls MultiMedia phones. It will likely be on the lower priced data plan (or maybe they'll make one between teh $10 and $30/month package). Given a choice between an EnV or a Kin, the Kin is an easy choice. If MS were to clean up the multimedia phone space at Verizon, I think you'll suddenly begin to see a new market emerge. Although it's a surprisingly tough market, because I think a lot of it hinges on the data center and carrier integration.
Watch how this plays out. I think it possibly flops, but could be iPhone like huge, but to a totally different market.
This article has clearly been posted 12 days late. Good one though.
We know that Apple protects their branding to a ridiculous degree... essentially arguing that any name with an "i" in front it threatens their intellectual property. So I wonder if Amazon will have anything to say about this new product? If I saw a news story about the "Kin Two", and the headline didn't qualify it as a Microsoft thing, my first assumption would be that it's a new version of Amazon's ebook reader.
Is it just me, or do the marketing folks at Microsoft have some serious deficiencies when it comes to naming products? Lets not forget The Monad Shell.
I guess this is what happens when they try to be creative. Otherwise everything is called either Windows, Business, or Office Something.
Ask Slashdot: Where bad ideas meet poor googling skills.
I recently purchased the HD2, it'd be a great phone had it not crapped out on my the third day, I would be happy with it. Android has taking a big share of the mobile market, I just hate it because it's more of a niche market - more for the social-network user - i don't care for rsa and do enjoy the windows platform; i like that i can use it as a gps modem with my laptop (ICS) some call it tethering, the only saving grace for the phone is it's huge screen which dwarfs most phones. Microsoft needs to get their "ish" together and make a reliable stable mobile platform. I don't want to choose between the iPhone, Android, or Blackberry only because no one else will step up.
Of all the things I've lost; I miss my mind the most. - Mark Twain
Ars seemed to like them well enough.
Living With a Nerd
Sounds 'kin rubbish.
Sorry it had to be done.
Why Android is "more for the social-network user" compared to WinMo?
Oh, and you can tether with both iPhone and Android.
Are kids these days really SOOO obsessed with their facbook/twitter accounts that they have the urge to 'share' *everything* they encounter with their *friends*?! If so SMS/MMS work just fine for them and does not require them or their friends to have a *special* phone.
The ads/videos are absolutely horrible - who came up with this? Feeling disconnected because you didn't have your phone for weekend? Sad.
The phone takes 720p HD video. It also has speakers and so I'm going to make a wild ass guess here and suggest that it plays MP3s also.
"Kin"?
Well, at least it'll sell well in Appalachia, enabling teens to keep track of which cousins are dating which.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
"No apps. Less functionality than an iPhone. Lame."
Yes, but you get something you don't get with Apple. You get abused by Microsoft.
Is this the Windows Vista of phones, the Windows ME of phones, or the Zune of phones?
It looks like the bet they're making is that including Facebook and Twitter support is a complete replacement for the traditional IM client. I'm not so sure that decision is so terrible from a marketing perspective. The trend I'm seeing is that old school IM clients just aren't as popular among less serious users nowadays; I get Facebook messages from all sorts of people I know would never bother getting a "real" IM account, or who have never figured out they already have one via Gmail.
Ultimately the real limitations of this phone aren't going to apparent until the matching data plan is announced. How much it will cost to download all the Twilight ringtones and background images that will obviously be introduced for this phone? These are the important questions. So far we already know that updates from some sites are put into 15 minute batches, presumably to same on network bandwidth, which doesn't bode well.
Get it? (well they hope people get it)....
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
Because, let's be honest, they do a much better job and social-networking functions then WinMo, what they don't do better is an all around Mobile business platform. I consider my new phone more of an ultra-ultra portable that happens to run a poor version of windows, it was interesting to find that some hackers had been able to load windows 7 on the device... promising.
Of all the things I've lost; I miss my mind the most. - Mark Twain
"These phones have no downloadable apps, no games, not even a calendar. They're not meant to be expandable smart phones; instead very good messaging phones." Because no one does a simple and elegant device like Microsoft. This will be a roaring success... when compared to the UMPC.
I give it Ricky Martin
The guy kept looking up... waiting... for applause just to not get any :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocpOEhSmPyA
I can't get excited about these and that is not because I'm too old (28) - Microsoft needs to fire their marketing department.
The phone war IS on, isn't it ?
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Microsoft, it seems, hired Dr. Seuss for their marketing department. It's hard to market devices like these, though.
There's so many things
That these phones do not do.
Many, many things missing
From Kin One and Kin Two.
Someone should write a full hands-on review in this Dr. Seuss style.
"Don't buy one if there's not enough apps for you
No, they're not expandable, not Kin 1 or Kin 2."
Well this is one way to stop people from saying "Zune is the suckiest thing ever".
I am curious though, where are all the MS astro-turfers that usually hit this type of article so early and so hard? Is Mechanical Turk down?
"The ferrets, they're every where I tell you!"
I know I'm a geek and I'm by no way saying I can do better (I can't) but that just looks like something a nerd designed to look cool. It just doesn't work. A lot of PC software / hardware suffers from this and probably because designers like Macs so PC companies get left with geeky looking things. Imo, MS has never designed an OS that you enjoy looking at and aside from a few of their mice, none of their hardware ever looks that nice either.
I really don't like that whole idea of the app screen being larger than the screen and you end up sliding things about to see stuff. Again, it looks like it was designed by someone who wanted to code that, not someone who coded something a designer created.
They need to start paying some serious cash to steal designers away from Apple or something. They just don't get it, imo. The egg shaped one looks like a iPhone and Blackberry's retarded child. To be fair the rectangular one isn't too bad but nothing says cool about it.
Awesome! I can’t wait for the homemade porn.
* For values of “teen” equaling 18 or 19, of course.
From what I could understand from the presentation, everything goes through Azure.
Which means that all the posts you make go through Microsoft's data centers before they get posted on facebook/twitter/whatever.
This is all just a scheme for Microsoft to gather user data and to monetize on it. A data-grab scheme, plain and simple.
Tag this: Do Not Want
Y
Who's running things over there?
...someone finds a good way to reflash it with Meego (or Android).
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
sounds like "gonad."
It's only a small thing (no pun intended) but this form factor (1, 2) is, if nothing else, pretty different from everything else we've seen so far. I doubt it'll be enough to save the line, but at least someone, somewhere is trying new stuff.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Because, let's be honest, they do a much better job and social-networking functions then WinMo, what they don't do better is an all around Mobile business platform.
Do you mean the fact that WinMo development tools are more enterprise-centric (SQL sync, datasets, drag & drop RAD UI designer, all that stuff)?
Because, feature-wise at least, I don't see why an Android phone couldn't be use in the same fashion.
And Microsoft still can't make a decent product if their lives depended upon it. I fail to understand how a company that always hires "the best and the brightest" can make such lousy decisions. Seriously, what middle manager or marketing suit looked at this turd and said "killer! -- this is hot!"
Unless this phone is going to be DIRT CHEAP (as in free with a new contract), it's doomed to fail. Kids do not want "low end", they want what they see the celebrities using on MTV. And Rihanna isn't going to be using one of these, she's going to use an iPhone or Blackberry.
How MS continues to strive for mediocrity (and even fails at that) I have to wonder. You would think with all the talent, money and power they control that someone there would be able to convince them they need to make a GREAT product, not a below average product.
Is Steve Jobs really that much of a magician that Apple can come out with really innovative products and market them successfully, or is just that the rest of corporate America has their heads so far up their own asses they couldn't see a good product if you beat them senseless with it?
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Seriously... so many stories today are about vendor product releases. I fail to see how this fits the raison d'etre for Slashdot. You're watering down the content in an attempt to rival Gizmodo and Engadget and it's starting to become annoying. A watered down Slashdot is becoming increasingly less worthy of my time.
... the new pringles? they look classy.
It's sort of like a Blackberry for young people. Or the Hasbro/Tiger Clueless Organizer, version 2.0.
It's about time for the toy companies to move into the phone space.
I followed the event online, it was very strange (check out that ugly ass bus!) The presentation right down to the clothes was odd. The phones are pretty ugly (imho) and the packaging looks like cheap body spray would be inside.
The interview was also interesting. My favorite quote:
In other words, they don't have the money or effort to create a competitive app store, but it's a hell of a lot easier to sell the existing catalog of video and music.
Keep in mind this was only 2 year project (can't find the reference to that again, though...) and might have had some financial backing from the big social sites which are featured on the phones (Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace). They are basically simple, cheap phones for teenagers (they mention giving them to a 13 and 17 year girls to use).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle ...in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions. This principle can be modeled and has theoretical validity. Peter's Corollary states that "in time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out his duties" and adds that "work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence".
In the corporate world especially, upper level politics and kickbacks and alliances always end up chucking creativity out the door, grinding it into the pavement, and writing off as an R&D expense as it's scooped into the dust bin.
Google avoids this by letting employees work on their own pet projects that get picked up for major development as they gain popularity in their internal culture, which seems to be quite good at picking winners. Apple has so far escaped this only because it's run like North Korea. There's one maniacal prick and marketing genius at the top of the food chain, and everyone else is meaningless.
So now they'll ask: "How do I get photos off 'the cloud'." Yes, much better.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Ok, I want to be clear about what i'm saying. Your right, there's no reason why an android phone couldn't be used for the same reason's, however, i believe that because of the way the phone has been marketed, i don't believe that the end user's will push for the same features and since there isn't a demand for the features on the phone, they won't be created which limits the phones capabilities for enterprise-centric functionality. Unlike windows phones which are already marketed for this function. In other words, I'm not buying an f150 to perform like a gt 40 (this just an analogy), of course i can outfit the f150 to produce the same performance however, not many people would want that type of performance out of a truck (i'm talking about the general public).
Of all the things I've lost; I miss my mind the most. - Mark Twain
Or get a Palm Pre Plus or Pixi Plus which VZW has been selling on the cheap with free mobile hotspot service .... http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/04/01/verizon-wireless-puts-the-palm-pre-plus-and-pixi-plus-on-a-fire-sale/
first phone I've seen with a smiley emoticon key
so where's the corporate backlash from Adobe threatening lawsuits to get on Microsoft devices?
According to a Microsoft official the phones are named Kin because they 'knit together...
Knit together, huh? C'mere you!
(sounds of a Microsoft offical being violent slapped about)
OK, what does it mean again?
kindred spirits.'
Oh dear, oh dear.
(more sounds of a Microsoft offical being violent slapped about)
Are you trying to amuse me? Does "kin" seem funny to you?
It says "you turn me on" inside the package
(blank stare)
OK. Rocko! Slab! Take this guy outside and give him the extended lesson.
Different Android phones - there's more than one! - are marketed differently. E.g. if you look at Nexus One, it's all about the geeky crowd (which is why I got one).
And by the way, which one is Pink?
--- squirted from my Zune.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Am I the only one here who gets the Cat in the Hat reference?
I heard about the nexus one but never really researched it, how is it marketed to the geeky crowd?
Of all the things I've lost; I miss my mind the most. - Mark Twain
"Onboard storage, however, is not the point, according to Microsoft executives. In fact, both phones serve as a portal to the cloud, storing photos, videos and other data on the network, rather than on the phone. Neither phone, for example, has an SD card slot, executives said. 'Thousands of customers walk into our stores every month and ask us, how do I get photos off this phone?' said John Harrobin, Verizon's vice president of digital media.'"
Oooh, "portal to the cloud." Well, then, that answers all criticism.
The younger generation just totally gets putting their pictures in the cloud. Verizon will transmit and store them for free. The cloud storage will be accessible to, compatible with, and interoperable with with their friends' iPhones. The risque pictures they upload will be secure and private. The concept of storing them in an SD card is way too technical for the target market to comprehend. Not.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Don't they see the obvious joke you can make with the name?
Microsoft have some of the most talentless branding and marketing people in the world.
They call their OS Windows (it has windows) and their Office suite Office.
I'm amazed this phone isn't called Microsoft Child Phone or something.
They look like almost-but-not-quite smart phones that are already on the market today
Indeed, they do look like today's features phones. However, look closer and you'll see that their friends and "internet friends" social hub could be a killer app. People seem to think condensing all the social networks into one spot is the bee's knees.
Then throw in the "Apple pretty" interface thanks to the nVidia Tegra chip, and you've got a feature phone ahead of the curve.
Microsoft has unveiled its new Zune One and Zune Two mobile phones, target-marketed at unusually stupid social-networking enthusiasts in their late teens and early twenties with a higher income than their IQ.
Team leader Roz Ho said the company had tried to create a Microsoft gadget that people actually wanted to have, like the XBox 360, but that actually worked properly.
"Get your Friendster and your MySpace!" said Ms Ho. "We studied consumer habits and built the perfect phone for the, uh, 'social generation,'" she air-quoted, "to make it 'fab' and 'bling' — I mean, of course, 'Bing!' — for people too stupid to work an iPhone to share their lives moment to moment."
The handset is of simple design for simple people. The keyboard automatically switches caps lock on at random and interjects common "chat" acronyms like "LOL" and "OMG" and "RTFM" should too many words in a row be spelt correctly. A breathalyzer automatically switches on the video camera in the event of excessive alcohol consumption. As well as the usual daily crashes, the Blue Screen of Death can be invoked by the user so as to have a suitable excuse not to answer a text. Later revisions of the phone may include making voice calls.
"We are excited to be the exclusive carrier for this exciting new Microsoft phone in the exciting US," said John Harrobin, Senior Vice President of Paperclip Filing and Vacuous Press Release Quotes at Verizon Wireless. "Because we fucking hate you people. We really do."
Roz Ho was previously leader of the Microsoft team that lost all the data on everyone's T-Mobile Sidekick phones last year when she told the systems team not to bother with backups.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
I heard about the nexus one but never really researched it, how is it marketed to the geeky crowd?
For starters, it's not sold through retail channels.
Its look is not as "bling" (today this seems to mean glossy) as iPhone is. It's gray / dark gray, with rubberized plastic back for no-slip holding. For the most part, the design is function-over-form, though I do find it looking more slick than iPhone (but then again I am a geek...).
In terms of actual features, it allows you to install third-party applications directly from .apk files (circumventing Market). Furthermore, its boot loader does not validate the system, so you can replace it with customized (e.g. rooted) modification with no hassle.
They come in CANS!? Welcome to 1985, Microsoft! I'm really surprised they have a department that is farther behind than software development...
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
You see, the new phones just announced as Kin One and Kin Two by Microsoft were a product of Microsoft's Crack Design Team.
That is, they gave a group of people meth and a crayon. (They only got a red, green or blue one.)
I say things which affects my Karma negatively. (and I don't care) For instance; All religion is false.
Wow, no doubt in mind that the Kin and the Pre are facing a real battle for market share!
Three Squirrels
I love the package. It makes me want a hot cocoa.
It seems like MS cannot design or market anything that they weren't selling a LOT of 15 years ago. Anything they do that's new (or that wasn't selling well back then) comes off looking like MS is grossly out of touch with... well, everybody.
It seemed appropriate.
I hope this device will be as successful as the zune.
It's running zunes os after-all.
If they keep that "classic Xbox green/black" color theme, then I'm sure they will. They will indeed.
This post © Copyrite Duggeek, all rights reversed.
Yeah, the KinMeisters used Flash to market the thing.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Really? Not even the Zune plays MP3s. They must be converted to DRM'd WMA files first.
give me a break - the Two looks just like the Palm Pre with a horizontal keyboard. How is it they don't get sued for that!
It's designed to make geeks like Microsoft through questionable pron. They are learning.
Defective by design.
Seriously. Those doesn't seem to be cheap underpowered devices. Are just crippled Win Phone 7 devices.
Not this myth yet again - it wasn't a prophecy, it was a comment. Just because something is popular, doesn't make it non-lame (is no one allowed to criticise Windows and IE?)
As for the phones - does it really not support any apps, even if via Java (even bog standard feature phones have had apps since at least 2005)? How much does it cost anyway - is it fair to compare this to expensive Iphones, or to lower end phones?
Not that running apps should be the be all and end all of phones. The Iphone has plenty of missing features such as Flash/Java, multitasking, ability to run any 3rd party app, and from the point of view of my 5800, it looks rather like a locked down feature phone too. Let's face it - if it was the Iphone that did other things, but not apps, you'd be all over yourselves claiming how revolutionary the Iphone was, but that apps were something you didn't need ("It does everything I want it to do already" etc).
Oh, wrong pink!
The Palm Pre is pretty cheap, and has many of these features.
Speaking of which, the Kin One looks suspiciously similar in design to the Pre :
- Rounded smooth shape
- Small vertically sliding keyboard, with tiny gummy keys
- No SD card data goes in and out only through the cloud
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]